Day 8 (still in South Dakota)

My second week on tour started with a 2 hour drive up to Aberdeen.  Not quite butt numbing, but it teetered on the brink.  The scenery was nice.  It ranged from corn to cattle with the occasional (VERY occasional) small (REALLY small.  Like, population 52) town sprinkled in.  But, I had some traveling companions, so I was fine.

Hey, don't judge me, they're delicious.  Plus they have a candy shell so they melt in your mouth, not in your hand (endorsement opportunities available, again, I'm just sayin).  

We got in to Aderdeen (famous for... OK, I was going to go all snarky here, but there's actually a lot of famous people from here, including the guy that wrote "The Wizard of Oz', a former U.S. Senator and a baseball Hall of Famer.  Who knew?) and pulled into the airport.  We got in a little early, so our escorts weren't there yet.

I climbed into the tour bus A.) to talk to Mike and Dave and B.) to sign a helmet.  

Stephen Hensley, a retired Captain from the Hampton (Va.) Fire Department, was supposed to go on tour with us last year.  He passed away suddenly in April of 2011.  In addition to his FD service he was a Vietnam vet, an Army Ranger that received numerous commendations.  I never met him, but as regulars around here know, I have some experience with sudden loss, and I had been thinking of what I wanted to write for a couple days.  Of course I didn't want to write a novel, just something brief and to the point for his family.

Rest easy Cap.  And may Peace be with You.

We moved on (via parade) to our first stop and joined in with two local fire departments, Aberdeen city and Aberdeen rural as well as the local CareFlight crew, for a "look at the trucks" kind of thing.  

I'd just like to back up a second here and note that I've never gone faster in a parade than these people up here go.  I mean like "geez wait for me" fast.  Like, if NASCAR had a "parade while on crack" fast.

Anyway.  Just like the last couple days, pretty much all the people we met up here were just awesome.  I think though, the high point today was a tshirt I saw.  It really kinda prioritizes what I assume women go through when they're fighting cancer...

Kinda sums it up, no?

Off to Pierre tomorrow (pronounced Peer)(no, really, I'm not joking)(seriously... Peer)(don't ask me why, I don't know) which is the state capitol.  As of now, we're only busy from noon to 4 tomorrow.  Of course we were supposed to be done before 7:00 tonight and we didn't get back til after 9:00.  That's ok though, like I said before, we'd rather be busy.  

Plus I've got clean laundry, so...

Pink Heals!

Peace